Long Ermine Poems

(continued from A Year Of Months (January-June)
https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/heroic_crown_of_sonnets_-_part_one_772928


A Year Of Months (July-December)

8. July

July now follows summer's song of June;
with sun ablaze, her days are humid, warm.
Great time to languish in the afternoon,
and later, watch an evening...

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You know when I think about it now and what I have to do,
a lot of you folk out there would have a bit of envy too;
you see I'm a 'lacky' for a vet, well...

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An Excelente Balade of Charitie (“An Excellent Ballad of Charity”)
by Thomas Chatterton, age 17
modernization/translation by Michael R. Burch

As wroten bie the goode Prieste
Thomas Rowley 1464

In Virgynë the swelt'ring sun grew keen,
Then hot upon the meadows...

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IF EVER I HAD A COUNTRY: LXXIX -  Bang! Bang! Who Shot Me Down like an Un-licensed Dog !

IF ever I had a country, a country certainly 
not subject to the whistle of a...

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IF EVER I HAD A COUNTRY: LXXX -  Bang! Bang! Who Shot Me Down like an Un-licensed Pariah 
Dog ! Follow Up !

IF ever I had a country, a country without a dim shadow...

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There was a king once reigning
Who carried a great, big flea—
And far from him complaining,
The flea filled the king with glee!
For to him that flea was dearer
Than even his only son,
And to make his preference...

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In the bleak midwinter,
frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow,
snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter,
long ago.

- Christina Rossetti

***

My mirror-face is pinched pallid as, colourlessly, I go...

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Tribute to “The Day Before You Came” * by Bjorn              
in the first 1982 ABBA version 


The day before yesterday 
You came...

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The problem of the inclusive pronoun is still very much a problem for the writer, and needs an accepted solution.  I tried for years with a suggested one of my own, but it never...

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Winter Fantasy

I love to walk through twilight
In mountain hills
Breathlessly awaiting evening’s first
Flakes of snow in a winter carnival
That rowdy gathering clouds
Threatened to toss upon their upturned faces
And,
When at last, making merry, the storm releases
A snowy...

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Born in Aberdeen Washington 
where he hung out,

“Underneath the bridge, 
the tarp has sprung a leak”

Taught himself to play guitar, 
liked to smoke some weed,

“And the animals I’ve trapped 
have all become my pets”

Started writing...

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Bring out your white, bring out your red,
Bring out the grapevine's daughter,
Enough to fill a waterbed,
We'll drink it down like water,

Pour it cold, pour it cool,
Pour it a little hotter,
Fill the glass - the golden...

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A man owned five water balloons,
That he had kept as souvenirs.
He stored each one in its own box,
Where they'd survived for many years.
 
One box was made of platinum,
Studded with Rubies, all around.
Inside, it was...

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The ocean shatters on the banks of my despair
where I stand above the cliffs in mournful yearning there,
amid the thunder and the lightning
that cracks the black of night
I curse the rocks below that took his...

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The ocean shatters on the banks of my despair
where I stand above the cliffs in mournful yearning there,
amid the thunder and the lightning
that cracks the black of night
I curse the rocks below that took his...

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One Christmas eve, we walked outside, to see the colors glow
Along the street, each house was lit, our breaths as white as snow

The air was sharp, and the world was white, and flakes were falling...

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~~

Hand in hand they meander through  the deserted lane, 
freshly fallen snow crumpling under foot 
Littering the sky, Bright stars,  glittering like coins on a belly dancers belt,
slowly surrender to the coming dawn


Inch...

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One in a million, gazillion, bazillion
Worth more than gold dollars a trillion or a billion –
You are my beacon, a Christian, love driven.
No heathen, no herdsman, no huntsman or felon.
No elfin, no ermine, no coward...

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Comrade
Tie rollerskates to pólice
Horses hoofs
Piss on the grim parade
From the roof
Of the dept store
Slip a fortune cookie note
That reads
´give me liberty or death
Or chicken chow mein ´
In the pocket of a
Passing pope
Arm the homeless
With pitchforks
&...

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His massive head was adorned with a wooly crown,
and his robes decorated with ermine of brown
What a majestic monarch roaming with regal grace.
He was mighty, but bearing a pusillanimous face.
The king ruled his domain and...

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Swarthy sky slowly murders daylight,
A night when angels fly in two's,
wishes taste ten days old,
mist stays belly down, a beaten cur,
dripping its fear on dog-rose thorns.

A mausoleum of lumberjack’s debris
lies waiting to issue last rites.
An...

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Seasoned in street-wise thoughts,
yet young in the expanse of time.
Picture framed against the barren wall,
rabbit-eyed in street lights glare.

Counting the grains, silver wrapped,
Anticipating getting lost in dragons smoke,
(can she conjure a phantom lover
in these tattered...

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Apprenticed to enamoring aviary, Love's cerebral chords to refine
To interpret the alluring tones in each, captivating line
Overhead, a snow white dove in the pure light doth shine
Innocent libido's inhibitions to illumine
On silted ground, turtle doves...

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Bored out of my skull in my hospital bed
You’ll be here for Christmas, the consultant said
What happened next made me bubbly as Fanta
Two nurses came in, they were dressed up as Santa

My blood pressure took...

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A man had five water balloons,
That he had kept as souvenirs.
He stored each one in its own box,
Where they’d survived for many years.

One box was made of platinum,
Studded with Rubies all around.
Inside it was lined...

Read More